


Under The Shade

by WhiteLadyDragon



Category: Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, Naruto
Genre: Aging, Alternate Universe, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst, Autistic Character, Drabble, Friendship, Gen, Gen Work, Homelessness, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Past Abuse, Post-Canon, Reconciliation, Regret, Tumblr Ask Box Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-20
Updated: 2018-08-20
Packaged: 2019-06-30 06:09:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,072
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15745839
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhiteLadyDragon/pseuds/WhiteLadyDragon
Summary: Years after they have both left Orochimaru and the Sound Village behind, Kabuto comes to Aina with an apology wrapped in an offer as she waits on her students.DISCLAIMER! Except for original character Aina, all featured or mentioned fictional entities are from Masashi Kishimoto's manga series Naruto. This fan fiction is written purely for entertainment and generates no profit whatsoever.





	Under The Shade

**Author's Note:**

> Based on a Tumblr prompt asking for a "good end" to my muse's story. You can find the original post here: http://super-kame-love.tumblr.com/post/161529498161/good-end

“Awright, y’all! Go on an’ pack. Come meet me out under this here tree in forty-five minutes. Try to take only the essentials, like I told ya.”

With her blessing, the children (a good portion of them pale-skinned with onion-shaped heads and glaring red eyes) trample grass as they hurry back into the house, whooping and buzzing with excitement. Urushi walks at the front of the group, barking reminders not to push and shove each other through the doors. The commotion makes her flinch, but otherwise she stays propped against the trunk of the plum tree and watches one or two blossoms drop to the ground like a cloud beginning to drizzle above her head, but with tiny umbrellas of bright pink petals rather than rain.

Her right hand supports her head while her left hand reaches out to catch a blossom in her open palm. She lightly pinches the bottom of the blossom and brings it to her nose. She smells its fragrance to keep her grounded here and now, anchored to one of the few things she recognizes here anymore. It’s the first soft touch she’s enjoyed in a long time.

Her meditation is shaken by the careful crunch of feet across the ground, accompanied by the soundless swish of robes.

Aina finds Kabuto coming to a stop on her left. He’s changed as much as the village has, a dragon in human shape. If it weren’t for his glasses and ash-gray hair and more prominent scales, one would have mistaken him for Orochimaru, his looks a permanent reminder of his mistaken choice to copy the man who they had once called their master.

But Kabuto is not Orochimaru. He’s better than him.

Or at least, he’s trying to be.

With his hands folded in front of him, he nods. “Thanks again for coming to do this, Aina. This trip has practically been all that the kids have talked about all week.”

His golden eyes are gentle but clouded, his words light but distant, as if he’s ruminating on something he’s been meaning to say for some time but could never quite find the right words to say it.

“You’re welcome,” she replies, her tone matching his in weight.

Kabuto frowns. In the bulk of the time he’d known her, she’d always said, “You’re always welcome.” Now it’s only “You’re welcome.” She has changed, as well. Time and exposure to the sun and sea have dried and hardened her brown skin to resemble that of the sea turtles she’s bonded with. The only reason her faded clothes are clean—the only reason she even has clothes on—is because he’d donated them to her.

Aina, on the other hand, finds some relief in his saying her name. He had never called her by her nickname. At least that hasn’t changed.

“You…don’t have to take them, if your heart isn’t in it. I’d hate to force you to do anything against your will.”

Not like he used to do.

“Ah, don’ you worry. You ain’t makin’ me do nothin’. Wouldn’ta bothered comin’ if I didn’ wanna take ‘em out campin’. Wouldn’ta even promised it. Been plannin’ an’ dreamin’ ‘bout it all month. It’s kinda nice to be looked to for guidance, for once.”

“Hm. Well, you won’t be all alone with them. Urushi and the others will be accompanying you.”

Aina places the blossom in her mouth. It’s natural that she take anything she can for food, considering where and how she’s lived for the past twenty years. Still, Kabuto watches her deliberately chew on the flower with a raised eyebrow.

She swallows, the earthy taste and sweet aroma of the blossom blooming across her tongue. “Y’ain’t comin’?”

“Unfortunately, no. Not this time. You know the rules. Besides, someone needs to stay back to mind home.”

“Ah. Right. Maybe next time.”

…

“Aina?”

“Yes, Kabuto?”

“You’re…welcome to stay here, you know. You don’t have to keep going without a roof over your head. You can come back. You know that, right?”

Aina’s bare left foot taps once, then twice against the ground. That is either a good or bad sign. Kabuto holds his tongue to check her reaction.

“Oh, I awready got a roof over the head. It’s the sky.”

Twenty years ago, he might have laughed at her for a comment like that. Now, he frowns.

“You are getting on in years,” he reminds her, as gently as he can.

She eyes him with a ghost of a smile flickering through her dry, cracked lips. “Ha. So’re you. So’s everybody else. I been livin’ off the land so long, I can’t quite see myself goin’ back to bein’ civilized again. If I ever was, to start with. It’s better, this way.”

“Is it? I don’t think you totally believe that. Or else you wouldn’t be coming back to visit like you’ve been.”

Something dark flickers across her round, wrinkled face, as if she’s considering telling him how his compassion, though appreciated, is much too little, much too late. But if she’s learned anything at all, it’s to never say anything based solely on emotions, fickle as those are. Yes, even sorrow and anger. Besides, Kabuto is just as much of a vic—

No. Not victim. Survivor. He’s just as much of a survivor as she is. Though Kabuto wears his face, he’s the man they’d both wished Orochimaru could have been. Or at least, he’s trying.

So instead, she brushes back an overgrown curl of hair and swallows the darkness along with another fallen blossom. This one, she snaps up like a turtle snapping at a beetle.

“Nah. Maybe it wasn’ what I wanted…but it’s what I needed. I’m a changelin’, don’ you know. I don’ belong with people or animals. But I can’t live long without neither. You’re welcome to try my lifestyle if this don’ work out for you. It’s very liberating. You do whatever you want, whenever you want, s’long’s ya got food an’ water an’ shelter.”

Kabuto smiles back at her, but his is a little sadder, even regretful. “Er, thank you, but I’m positive by now that this is where I belong. Besides, I have some reservations about going around naked, especially outdoors. Likewise, my offer still stands.”

“Yep.”

The two spend the rest of the wait under the shade, side by side in silence. They’ve said all they’ve had to, for now.


End file.
